NPL Undergraduate Student Samantha Lund chosen as Clare Boothe Luce Research Scholar

 

Sam began her work in the ZDC group as a research mentor for two high school students participating in the Young Scholars program. The high school student summer project, carried out in collaboration with fellow undergraduate student Paul Malachuk, studied the performance of light guides for the ATLAS ZDC detector. Under Sam's and Paul's guidance, two high school students (one from St. Louis, the second from Chicago) acquired skills in computer aided design, coding, and instrumentation development.

 

After completion of the Young Scholars project, Sam continued investigating the impact of different light guide geometries on efficiency and uniformity in light collection. Most recently, Sam has worked on the simulation, production, and experimental characterization of light guides, in collaboration with Kristopher Young and Paul Malachuk. The Clare Boothe Luce Research Award will fund the completion of Sam's work on light guides studies, informing the design of the new Zero Degree Calorimeters for ATLAS and CMS in the High-Luminosity LHC era. Thanks to the Clare Boothe Luce support, Sam will be able to join the UIUC team travelling to CERN to participate in test beam measurements for the NPL-built ATLAS Reaction Plane Detector this summer.